Albus Potter and the Sword of Gryffindor
by Astrid Elphaba Lovegood
Summary: Shortly before Lord Voldemort's downfall, Bellatrix Lestrange birthed his child. Twenty-two years later, the children of the heroes from the Second Wizard War fight to bring down Voldemort's son, Lord Zelnor.
1. Chapter One: Lust

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything in Harry Potter but I sure wish I did.

Authors Note: Is it published? Am I on fanfiction?

Chapter One  
Lust

All was silent in the black forest. The night was young but all the same, every living creature seemed to accept it as though darkness always came this early, and were asleep…

All but one owl, who also seemed unbothered by his short sleep. His eyes darted around every barrier, desperate for weak pray, his ears alert. He waited for a sound or a sudden movement. He hadn't eaten for nights. How he longed for prey.  
He heard a small pop, turned his head, and a tall, thin, threatening shadow stood in a space that had been unoccupied the last time he glanced it.

The following happened so fast. The shadow noticed his sudden movement, saw it brandish a short stick, wave it, cry out, saw a flash of green light, and he fell out of his hollow tree, still and cold.

The shadow cautiously approached the tree and looked down her nose at the dead owl. Bellatrix Lestrange momentarily resembled the owl, her eyes scanning the seemingly empty forest for any sign of magical concealment.

Her heart was in her throat. She could not be discovered now in such a filthy place. If she was detected by Death Eaters, she would surely never receive what she wanted. And she had waited too long for this moment. Too many years she had been deprived of this sweet moment.

And she had every right to this moment! More right than anyone else! She was his most faithful servant. If he would respond to her summons, then she would get that moment.

She was, as she made sure, entirely alone. But not for long. For the first time in seventeen years, she threw caution to the wind. Bellatrix pulled back her left sleeve and touched her Dark Mark with the tip of her wand. It burned slightly at its touch.

There was a booming of thunder from the darkest cloud. If there was not a bolt of lightning raining down from the sky, Bellatrix would not be able to see him flying down with it, for his dark robes blended in with the night. He vanished momentarily, covered by the thick canopy above her.

In a few brief moments, Bellatrix was smiling at the sight of the Dark Lord drifting towards her. This was it. The only words in Bellatrix's head seemed to be mischief and lust, as they filled every particle of her body, soul, and mind. The seemingly ever-present fear of being seen had vanished. What did it matter if they were found? Magic was on her side.

Mischief… she was going to perform what was wrong on so many levels… and no one would ever discover her… She would succeed in what no other had dared to do…what she had wanted for so long.

Lust… she was only moments away from what would be the most glorious moment in her life. Why did she bother to wait? She had waited long enough.

She filled herself with lust, banishing mischief from her soul, filling herself with every ounce of meaning the curse would need to overtake him.

"You sent for me Bellatrix?" said the Dark Lord in his high, cold voice that she craved so much, "You said you had information on the boy. Tell me, my most faithful servant, of the news of Harry Potter?"

Waiting not an instant longer-feeling it was impossible to do so-, Bellatrix raised her wand and shouted, "ImPeRiO!"  
Whoever thought it could be so easy? She would finally get what she had wanted after what seemed like a lifetime… All thanks to lust.

Author's Note: Yeea!


	2. Chapter Two: The Godfather

Chapter Two  
The Godfather

The wind whistled through the trees and bushes surrounding Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix Lestrange apparated outside the front gate. She began to approach it and held out her left arm. The iron gates swung open to admit her presence.

Bellatrix hastened through towards the front door. The clanging of the opening and closing gates must have woken a resident, for the head of a thin figure with long white-blonde hair peered out the window to see this visitor.

"Bella!" cried the witch peering out the window. Bellatrix almost dropped the curiously shaped bundle she was carrying. She looked up towards her sister's window.

"Oh, Cissy! It's only you! I thought it was Lucious! I he mustn't know I'm here! Is Draco there?" She asked, desperately.

Of course he's here! He doesn't leave for school until tomorrow!"

"Well, don't leave me standing out in the cold! Let me in! It's urgent!" She snarled at her sister.

"If you insist." Narcissa sighed, a trace of disgust in her voice. Her face disappeared from her window. Within seconds, she appeared at the front door, beckoning her sister.

"Quickly! If it really is that urgent!"

Her sister rushed inside, Narcissa closing the door behind her.

"Bella, what is this all about?" She demanded.

"You'll find out soon enough! Wake Draco! Is there a safe place we can talk?"

"In my bedroom. There's an imperturbable charm on the door so no one can listen through the keyhole. Get going!"

Bellatrix did not need telling twice. She hastened up the stairs, careful not to wake anyone else who could possibly discover her secret. She walked into Narcissa's chamber. Although it was spacious and there were many comfortable places to sit down, she did not. She paced up and down the room, clutching the oddly shaped bundle as though it were her last lifeline. She desperately hoped her plan would work! He was her only hope.

Draco and Narcissa arrived at the door, Draco looking dazed and confused, Narcissa, agitated and dangerous, shut the door with ferocity.

"What is this, Bella?"

Bellatrix's black eyes narrowed and filled with a different emotion. "He'll be in danger! I'm already too busy to look after him and he's too young to fight with us!"

"What are you talking about?" screeched Narcissa, "Draco will be fighting alongside us! He is almost of age! He can fend for himself! He doesn't need you! The Dark Lord-"

"NO!" cried Bellatrix as she stopped pacing, her eyes widening with fear, "He must never discover it! Never!" Her eyes returned to their normal size and she resumed pacing with nervosa in her eyes and her footsteps much heavier than before.

"Bella, what's going on?" asked Narcissa, completely perplexed, "Calm down! What's the problem? What are you talking about? Bella- WHAT IS THAT!" She recoiled from the oddly shaped bundle in her sister's grasp. She gasped.

Wrapped tightly in robes was a baby boy with a face almost identical to Bellatrix's but bearing the eyes of Tom Riddle.  
Bellatrix handed him over to her sister. Narcissa held him as if her were a holy relic, lost for thousands of years, a reappearance never suspected, looking just as you secretly imagined at its reappearance.

"Oh Bella. His eyes," she whispered, "surely the father can't be…" Her voice was so quiet anyone could've mistaken her next words for a whistle in the wind. "The Dark Lord."

Draco, who had remained still in an armchair until this very moment, cautiously approached the child of his Aunt and the Dark Lord as if the whole situation was a test or a trap.

"Bella, how foolish of you. You can't raise the child of the Dark Lord!" said Narcissa, her tone suddenly chastening, "You have other duties! You must remain faithful to the Dark Lord! You must fight along with him! You must remain faithful to your husband!"

"I know I must! And we can't leave the child of the Dark Lord to perish like a filthy Muggle!" Bellatrix's gaze was desperate and frantic as it had been when she had entered the room.

"Do you have any idea what would happen if anyone found out?" cried Narcissa.

"Of course I have!" Bellatrix snapped back, "I can't raise him! If word got out about me, I'd be sentenced to death! And the Dark Lord would fall without me!"

"Without you?"

"I've been his most faithful! All these years, I've stood by him! Never even dreaming of turning back! I can't let his boy die! It would ruin everything! Everything I've wanted for so long! Draco! He's my only hope! Draco must raise him!"

It was as if the world had stopped turning. No one dared to speak. After a long silence that felt like eternity, Draco whispered as though he would die of fright, "M-me? Bring up the c-child of the D-dark Lord?"

"It is an honor that many would die for." Narcissa said, sounding jealous but afraid, "Why Draco? Why someone so young?"

"He is his Godfather," whispered Bellatrix, "Not only is he my only hope, he's also his only hope." She stared into her child's eyes.

There was an awkward silence.

"Very well." whispered Narcissa as though she had nothing more to say, but Bellatrix knew from the hungry look in her eye, that she had more. She prevented it from happening by taking the child out of her sister's arms and into Draco's.

"Draco, will you raise Zelnor Orion Riddle as your own, teach him to worship the Dark Lord, despise Muggles and all those with dirty blood? Will you show him all the glory and rewards of the Dark Arts and let him long to serve his father as Zelnor Orion Malfoy?"

Draco still looked as if he would soon faint. After a few long minutes of staring into Bellatrix's eyes, he whispered, death pale, "Yes."


	3. Chapter Three: Harry's Warning

Chapter Three

Harry's Warning

For the fourth time in his life, Albus Potter ran through the barrier to Platform Nine-and-Three Quarters. Like all the times before, his two best friends, Guinevere Finch-Flethcley, a curly brown haired witch with a self-satisfied smile and catlike grey eyes, and Matt Richards, a blonde wizard with big blue eyes and protruding ears, stood waiting for him.

A sense of overwhelming joy enveloped him, as he approached his friends. They were talking of Quidditch and did not see his arrival.

Once they were within earshot, Al called, "Forgotten about me while you were on holiday, did you, Matt?"

At the sight of him, Matt and Guinevere rushed up to him. Guinevere wrapped him in a tight hug and Matt rumpled his hair.

"Blimey, Al, we haven't seen you for ages!"

"I haven't seen me for ages either. How've you been?" Guinevere let go of Al and now Matt began to hug him.

"Alright. You?"

"Alright. I've got loads to tell you!"

"So do we!" said Matt, letting go.

"How was Majorca?"

"I hadn't been there in so long, I'd forgotten how bloody boring it was!"

"You Guinevere?"

"Brilliant! You'll never guess who moved down the street while her parents were at your place?"

"Who?"

"Katie Longbottom!"

Al grinned, but his happiness was nothing compared to Matt's. "Did she drive you crazy with her talk of the Crumple Horned Snorcack?" Matt laughed.

"For the first week, yes, but she stopped soon after that and was actually quite pleasant. It was nice to have someone my own age to talk to."

Albus knew Katie Longbottom well. Her parents were good friends of his parents. She was taught to believe in crazy creatures that had never been proven to exist. She was hard to forget, always dressed oddly, her long, wavy, brown hair always concealing one of her brilliant blue eyes which stood out against her pale skin.

"Does she have family there?" Al asked.

"Her Great-Gran Augusta, who is even crazier than Luna."

Harry and Ginny approached Al, Matt, and Guinevere.

"Almost ready?" said Ginny.

"Yeah, almost."

Ginny struck up a conversation with Matt and Guinevere. Harry pulled Albus aside.

"Listen, Al. I need a private word with you." Al followed him into a deserted spot on the platform from which everyone was out of earshot.

"Albus," Harry began, "this year you have to stay out of trouble."

Al stared into Harry's bright green eyes that greatly resembled his own. They were filled with meaning.

"Trouble?" He asked skeptically.

"Hogwarts is prone to that sort of thing," said Harry darkly, "I know you trust the school very easily, but-" He seemed to be struggling to chose the best words to emphasize his point. "-I've received word that-" Harry appeared to be bursting, and the words almost fell out of his mouth. "-one of you new professors can't be trusted."

A knot formed in Albus' chest. He had not heard correctly. His senses were fooling him, but what if they _were_ telling the truth? "Can't be trusted?"

"Yes. It will be more important this year to keep close to your friends."

"Of course I will, Dad. You know me."

"Confide in no one else. You never know who is on your side."

This was, by far, the most unusual advice Harry had ever given Al. He was talking to him as if there were a war going on.

"_My side_?"

"Yes," Harry gripped his son's hand like one attempting to cling to its last bits of life, "your friends, Matt, Guinevere, Katie, Sagittaria, Brian, Lily, James, Rose, and Hugo, will be important this year. Be wary, but trust your friends. Discover, but remain cautious. And before you go, I want you to have this."

Confusion was extinguished by Al's curiosity as Harry pulled from his coat pocket a silvery cloak and handed it to Al. Disappointment sprang upon him, attacking and injuring curiosity.

"A _cloak_?"

"It's an invisibility cloak. It was my father's and now, your need is greater than mine." Harry checked his watch, "It's almost time to go. You'd better board."

Al stuffed away the cloak in his trunk as students clambered to board the scarlet steam engine. Guinevere, Matt, James, Lily, Rose, and Hugo approached them, Ginny slightly hanging back.

Their goodbyes were hasty. Al stepped onto the train and began peering out the window, reaching his hand out to wave to Ron and Hermione. The train was about to leave the station and just before it pulled away, Harry held tightly to his son's hand once more, his green eyes wide.

"Use it well."


	4. Chapter Four: The Signs

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter but I do own Matt and Guinevere, who are basically the trio.

Author's Note: Sorry I haven't been putting these on… I'm technologically challenged.

Chapter Four

The Signs

"So, let me get this straight," said Guinevere, pacing their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, "Your dad said that someone at Hogwarts can't be trusted."

"Yes," Al mumbled lazily for the umpteenth time as he attempted to stare out his window through the pouring rain.

"A new professor?"

"Yes."

"How can that be?" Guinevere mused to herself rather than Matt or Al.

Matt groaned. "Guinevere, we've been over this a _million times!_ Just because you think teachers are all perfect doesn't mean they really-"

"And _you've_ said _that_ a million times!"

Al was already getting tired of his friends' bickering. He was finding it hard not to insert his two-sense.

"Well, look at it this way, Guinevere," he said, "if some Slytherin comes back and asks for a job, they wouldn't deny him just for that reason. That totally defeats the purpose of the Heads of House! If _Scorpius_ came back to teach, McGonagall wouldn't say, 'Sorry, but you're a Slytherin. See ya!'"

"Maybe he'll grow up. Anyway, Albus, I thought we were talking about your dad's warning. Why are you so _obsessed_ with him, anyway? Why do you always have to find out was he's up to?"

"_Scorpius, grow up?_ He'll _never_-" Frustration bubbled inside him. "-Guinevere, I'm not _obsessed _with him. I'm just trying to protect anyone he might try to blow up with all his rubbish. I don't think he'd _ever_ grow up: his dad worked for Voldemort."

It fell silent in the compartment and remained as such for a few short moments. Matt and Guinevere, as did the rest of the Wizarding World, were taught to fear the name Voldemort. This silence was always present after Albus' mention of the name. Al, growing up with Harry and Ginny for parents, was never taught anything of the sort. He had always been inclined to say Voldemort, even though Matt, Guinevere, Lily, and James could not understand why.

The heavy rain splattered the window, covering the landscape as if the _obscuro_ charm had been cast upon it. Finally, Matt spoke.

"Al," his voice broke, "Do you think _Longbottom_ knows about this teacher?"

Al and Guinevere gasped and the conversation took a more rapid pace.

"Of course Professor Longbottom knows! That's why your dad had him stay with you!"

"Yeah, but Harry had about fifty others over there as well," said Matt, exasperated, "How does that explain that Veela Aunt all the way from France who called off her anniversary trip to come and stay with him? And his Uncle Charlie came from Romania! No bloke in his right mind would go all that way just because Longbottom said so!"

Guinevere stopped pacing and the excitement vanished from her face and was replaced by caution. She said slowly, "I think… that… there were… _other…_ reasons."

Al turned away from the window to stare at Guinevere's face as if he could read her mind by looking at it long enough.

"Other reasons?" He whispered.

Guinevere sighed. She plopped down next to Matt as if she had been pacing for years. "Haven't you two been reading the news?"

"Guinevere, I've been at a Majorcan Muggle beach house all summer! Do you reckon they get the _Prophet _there?"

She shook her head and sighed. "You, Al?"

"No. James, Lily, and I've been too busy trying to figure out what's been going on in my place. That's enough news in and of itself! Uncle Ron's been snatching every _Prophet_ he can get his hands on before we can even get a glimpse of a headline. There was too much secrecy at my place."

Guinevere stood on her seat, opened her trunk and pulled out stacks of the past week's _Daily Prophets_. Matt was forced to scoot over so Al could also read the paper.

"_EsCaPeD dEmEnToRs?!" _Matt cried incredulously, "Is that what's making all this fog?"

"Of course it is! Why else would Al's dad seem so down all the time? He's been through a lot of awful things-"

"Harry can make the best bloody Patronus I've ever seen! Why can't he just-" Matt began.

"Because he hates being the center of attention."

Al continued to peruse the paper and he heard Matt mumble something about "ironic". His eyes widened.

"_Disappearances_?"

Guinevere began to read. _"Missing since August 15, Ministry Official Jennifer Dudley from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Missing since August 19, Ministry Official Edward Redding from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Beings. _You get the idea. And they're all from the Ministry…"

"What could this mean?" Matt asked, in a worried voice no more than a whisper.

"Well," said Guinevere slowly, "from my research, it seems as if this is…" She paused as if trying to muster courage. Only the pounding rain was audible in this silence. Finally, she managed to pull herself together and she whispered, "These were the signs of the First and Second Wars against You-Know-Who."

It was just as silent as if she would have said the name Voldemort. Al broke it murmuring, "The way Dad was talking to me it sounded as if there _was_ a war going on. He told me to trust my friends and only my friends and confide in no one else. You know… I reckon a war _could_ be starting. It's got all the signs…"

Author's Note: I'm amazed I actually got this far with uploads. Yay for being technologically challenged!


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